42109 Top Gear Rally Car revealed!
Posted by Huw,
LEGO announced an exciting partnership with Top Gear earlier in 2019 and the resultant model has been officially revealed. Here is the press release:
42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car, 463 pieces
US $129.99 - UK £124.99
Today, the LEGO Group revealed the first ever LEGO Technic Top Gear Set in partnership with BBC Studios. The new LEGO Technic App Controlled Top Gear Rally Car is an authentic looking GT Rally car for ages 9 years and above and will be available globally from 26th December 2019.
LEGO Technic designers joined forces with the BBC Top Gear team to co-design the body of the car and accompanying stickers to create an ultra-realistic and fast looking racer that fans are sure to enjoy building at home.
The model is remote controlled via the LEGO Technic CONTROL+ app and contains functions such as steering, multi-touch control and gyro control as well as different challenges and achievements to deliver a thrilling, immersive play experience. The rally car comes complete with 1 large motor, 1 XL motor and 1 Bluetooth controlled smart hub.
“It’s exciting to have collaborated with LEGO Technic on this and it’s a very natural fit for the Top Gear brand. The LEGO Technic Top Gear Rally Car is the result of several months hard work from the LEGO and BBC Studios teams and we can’t wait to see it on the shelves soon” said Jason Easy, Head of Licensing UK, BBC Studios.
Niels Henrik Horsted, Marketing Director for LEGO Technic added: “We are really excited to finally reveal the App-Controlled LEGO Technic Top Gear Rally Car. The car offers a challenging build for ages 9+ who are into authentic play and intrigued about how things work. The CONTROL+ app gives an extensive play experience with several different play modes and exciting challenges.”
Fact Sheet: LEGO Technic App Controlled Top Gear Rally Car
- First LEGO Technic set designed in partnership with BBC studios
- 463 LEGO elements used
- The model comes with 1 large motor, 1 XL motor and 1 Bluetooth controlled smart hub
- Remote controlled via the LEGO Technic CONTROL+ app
- Price: $129.99 USD, £124.99
- The product is available globally from 26th December 2019
LEGO Technic CONTROL+ Functions:
- Driving forwards and backwards, steering with CONTROL+ app
- Multi-touch control
- Gyro control
- Challenges and achievements
- Inspirational videos for play
- The LEGO TECHNIC CONTROL+ app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.
Are you satisfied with 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car or were you hoping for something different in LEGO's partnership with Top Gear? Let us know in the comments.
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90 comments on this article
That is some very understated Top Gear branding!
Cool set, but not worth the price. Especially when the RC components will be completely useless as soon as the app is discontinued.
I know it means flogging a dead horse, but imho what you get for the money at RRP is pitiful. The set looks nice, but less than 450 pieces for 130 Euro? Forget it.
Technic sets without motors traditionally have been around 3 to 5 cents per piece, which makes sense as there are usually a lot of pins. So that's about 25 to 30 Euro in parts if we're generous. So for two motors and a smart hub you're supposed to pay 100 Euro?
I have really been spoiled by CaDa sets in recent times which offer both excellent parts quality as well as 2.4 GHz remote technology and PF-compatible components. I simply can't warm up to the concept of app-controlled LEGO Technic, especially after having watched videos on YouTube where one can clearly see how cumbersome it is to use the app.
I don't watch Top Gear, is there some specific tie to the show here or is it just a pointless logo added to the side for marketing?
Am I the only one here who thinks the overall design looks horrible?
And £125? Yeeshh... what a rip off.
Reasons to buy:
1) Pretty nice.
Reasons not to buy:
1) Price
2) Stickers
3) Functions require App that will be obsolete soon enough
For the price it should at least come with a collectible Stig minifig.
Not a bad looking design, but I think "ultra-realistic" might be a stretch.
Even price aside I think this set looks awful
I would be hesitant if I were in the UK but I'll pay the US price. Control+ is obviously adding some to the price. Now they need to bring out the light piece for Control+.
Besides the logos, what has it to do with topgear? Stupid, ugly and over priced.
It's a nice looking car; actually, it is rather very nice looking (for a Technic car). But there isn't really any reason why this should be produced in association with 'Top Gear', or am I missing something?
I haven't watched the show since forever, but from the description I get the impression that it is a somewhat 'generic' rally car, not anything that ever appeared on the show, right?
Why did Lego need to collaborate with Top Gear on this, especially it its a generic rally car? For use of stickers to justify the price?
@LegoDavid that is not true.
TLG did the good thing by a) using standard BLE, b) and releasing the protocol specification.
There are already multiple 3rd party control apps, not only for the mobiles but for example PC.
So it is just a generic rally car with a Top Gear sticker slapped onto it? Not even a print? The price is ridiculous, even with the motors.
Couldn't Lego have designed something like this themselves without them (i.e. "us") having to pay a licensing fee to the BBC/Top Gear?
Can't make out from the technical blueprint whether the car has springs/shocks/dampers, but it doesn't look like it.
Isn't much of a rally car though if it doesn't come with serious springs/shocks/dampers, is it?
Nah...
?
IMO not a bad bargain for a technic hub, although it will be pretty much overshadowed by the large hub included in SPIKE Prime.
Wake me up when the next modular building is announced.
The development department: "Alright, what car for a TG set?"
Designer 1: "A cool one, like the Koenigsegg!"
Designer 2: "A legendary one, like the indestructible Hilux!"
Designer 3: "A hilarious one, like the self-engineered Rover James!"
Designer 4: "Yes."
Development: "Brilliant!"
how fast will it go?
is anyone going to buy this? Seriously?
It looks ugly, it uses a sh*tload of stickers, it's from a show nobody watches anymore....
It looks like a set the size of the £40 Corvette, (that doesn't look like a Corvette) and was £23 for ages, with a couple of motors stuck in it and about 50 stickers.
Still, it might be worth getting it for the hub and motors when its under £50.
Another weirdly out of touch prestige piece.
Cool interesting set but I'd pay about £80 for it and wheres the Stig minifig lol...
I want to see construction site Technic vehicles next lego, forward tip dumper, Roller and concrete pump truck, maybe a cherry picker.
Sweet lord that price is worse than Star Wars sets
I'm sure there's a market for this sort of thing. That market's not me, or a lot of the people here it seems, but I'm sure TLG have done their homework.
And nevermind a Stig minifig; where's our Stig TECHNIC fig??
I feel myself in the late 90s again when criss-cross "Technic" sets were released to the market and it was just the beginning of downhill for Technic.
Please don’t buy this folks..
Is it compatible with 42098? (Which, incidentally provides a lot more bang for your buck at the same price point).
I think I'm having an unpopular opinion, but I very much like the look of the car. I never watched Top Gear, so I don't know if this car is a reference to one of the episodes or something. However, I think the car looks cool and robust.
On the other hand, a lot of people seem to forget that this set includes electrical components and motors, which are a lot more expensive to make and develop than plastic bricks.
I don't know about the app or if there's actually a valid reason to expect it to be discontinued in the near future.
Besides, - and this is probably not an option in the app - I would like there to be an option to program the motor and all functions myself. That would be really cool and makes the new parts a lot more versatile.
Loving those Stig headlights!
Should have included a Stig minifig. maybe they have a GWP stig up their sleeve to try and sell this because I doubt anyone will pay full whack for it
Hard pass with zero regrets.
As everyone else has already said, too expensive and looks rubbish
And here I was hoping for the Hammerhead Eagle iThrust
@CreativeTim I agree! I love this rally car, but not for that much. A Track-Tor would have been cool. A non-Top Gear Koenigsegg or Iron Knight would have been cooler.
A rather standard Technic set with only the slightest Top Gear link - which are just stickers - and not even a Stig minifig to go with it? And then you ask for that price?
Nope, terrible set.
It should have been a Speed Champions set, involving the TV studio in some way one or two cars and the Stig at least. Though to be honest it's too late for that as the iconic trio are not part of the show anymore so there would be no way to add them in.
Pointless.
Stickers stickers stickers and more stickers I really hate the path Lego is now on. Please bring back the printed brick I don’t care what effect it has on the cost I just don’t want stickers
Another overpriced set.
@labronco2 and @bananaworld , LEGO doesn’t market to AFOLs. It regards them as ‘already in the bag’ and therefore part of its existing sales, not its growth. To lure non-AFOLs (and non-TFOLs), LEGO leverages other brands/franchises such as Top Gear, James Bond and Land Rover, as well as areas of interest such architecture, tourism and culture.
Looks cool.
As others have said already, this is a very pricey set when considering its app based for control. The design is not the best but I feel the black wheels add nothing to what is already a bland look.
I concur with the Stig minifig comments, this should have been a given considering gth branding.
I'd pass even at 50% discount, the low piece count makes it look even worse when up against the last Porsche Technic release.
The mind boggles.
Top Gear? Wasn't that cool in 2007 or something? Funny how easy it has become to just pass on most sets.
I like it, and it is a lot less expensive than https://brickset.com/sets/42099-1/4x4-X-Treme-Off-Roader
Where the heck is the Stig minifig????Thats the only reason I was interested in a Top Gear set!
The car looks pretty cool, but not worth the price to me. It also has nothing to do with Top Gear. It's just an app-control technic car with some Top Gear stickers.
What's 'Top Gear'?
J/K. So lovely to see another merry set release met with comments of adoration and wonder from us fans. Oh dear.
So it's basically the go-kart (42048), which didn't have suspension either, with a motor for 100$ more?!
Well on the bright side its £125 I have for other sets. I'll look forward to seeing this inbetween the ISD and Wooden figures on the shelves well into 2020. Its such a nothing model. Too expensive, not really a rally car that anyone can recognise, a mismatch of colours and not really Top Gear. The have never had a rally car. Really dont know who in Sales and Marketing signs these off.
The RC components kill it for me, in both price and desire to own. Great looking, though!
This is 10 years too late and $50 too much.
Imo the car is nice per se but the price is ugly. At least considering that there is no physical remote control (rather than an app control that is going to become obsolete in 1-2 years) and has a ton of stickers
I don't get the issues others are having with the app becoming obsolete (Lego will surely ensure functionality over time), other than that this set is a complete joke. What makes this Top Gear besides the stickers? And that price...
The design of this rally (?) car... "authentic"?? "ultra-realistic"??
Is it compatible with the physical remote control? (88010)
So, about 50$ for the stickers. Nah, I'll pass
I'll be interested to see how the steering works with a normal motor and not a servo motor, and how well it works. Will it be return to centre?
Oh dear Lego.. have you lost touch with your customers...just bring on the next modular ASAP and I will be happy !
I like it when it's easy to pass up an expensive set for a change. I'd rather pay double and get 7 times the pieces and purchase an additional 76139 Batmobile when it comes out. I'll be perfectly fine pushing it around by hand going "Vroom Vroom!"
Too pricy and I don’t usually get Technic sets anyway. Even though I like the original show, I’m not planning to get this. Maybe if if it was a creator expert set with mini figures of the hosts?
Who actually watches Top Gear anymore since the three best presenters left?
I'll pass on this, way too overpriced.
The 1989 batmobile is more appealing.
I kinda like the way it looks. That price though. Hahaha.
Ummm intresting...
I wonder how fat it can go :)
If its a Top Gear theme it should have some speed with it hehehe XD
As I do watch Top Gear, I can confirm that the car hasn't been seen in the show.
I like the look of it a lot, but the cost of the Control+ parts means that for me, the price is too high.
What a terrible model!
Oh, and the press release is just an insult to anyone with a flicker of intelligence, especially the quotes.
Empty headed nonsense.
Apart from the tail lights, I think it rather looks like an MG Metro rally car. Anyway, it looks more like an MG Metro rally car to me than the Technic Corvette looks like a Corvette.
Doesn't look too bad imho , but seems to lack: functionality, link with Top Gear, a Stig and a decent price. And driving a car while watching a screen would seem a hard thing to do.
What I don't get (on pretty much every set releases) is that for an international company, Lego certainly needs some training in currency trading. As of today (18th Nov 2019) USBGBP = 0.7721 or conversely GBPUSD = 1.2952. So the US price is either: $161.89 or the UK price is: £100.37. As for this set? They could have at least taken the frame of 42037, remove the greebling, add a hub, motors and a rallye body to it and that would have been just fine. This is certainly not for me - a rallye car without suspension? come on...
@Wrecknbuild maybe they are trying to train the next generation to do just that: driving while looking at a screen. They do that now (texting while driving) and die doing it...
As soon as it said "App-Controlled" I'd already switched off.
@HOBBES
I fear you may be right on the driving. Although I see a lot of non-youngster texting and driving as well... Hopefully it won't take too long before we can look at a screen and have the cars drive by themselves safely.
Concerning the currency conversion: in the US there is no VAT, or a limited VAT in certain states, making it hard to directly compare prices. Anyway, the German price usually is a bit lower than the Dutch one, even though we both have the euro and almost similar VAT.
I'm just disappointed we have no figures of the presenters...I know it's a technic set but still, I'd die for LEGO Capt. Slow, Hamster and Jezza.
Glad I've already got a Stig miniature keyring. That's all the Top Gear I need!
I hope The Lego Company is reading all of this! Listen to your audience and your consumers. I talk highly of the company usually, but it's now starting to get a little ridiculous! Well it's been happening for a while now, I guess. Please listen!! or you will lose sales and faith from us!!
(And for this model, it reminds me of one of the way cheaper 2-1 Sets for $15. Nuff said.)
It should at least come with the Stig.
Very weird release date too. 26th of December? It's like the worst day, with boxing day getting all the sales from the not-quite-yet exhausted consumers from the holidays. Wouldn't they have sold a ton more had they released it a week earlier?
May I please have some Lego with my Stickers?
I have watched a ton of Top Gear (BBC not US) and honestly I don't recognize the car. What episode was it in? Yeah I didn't think so. So how is this related in anyway to Top Gear? Oh its a car , oh and stickers that say Top Gear. What else...... Licencing and...... anyone?
I LOVE Top Gear and I HATE this set. Its more "top Dollar" than "Top Gear".
This should have been called an RC car and saved Lego fans $75 for the forced on "Top Gear" branding.
@denn @thelegofan Doesn’t “fast looking” say it all?
It's got a marginally better price-to-part ratio than 76112 App-Controlled Batmobile, for a noticeably larger volume of stuff. That doesn't seem too bad. What's not nice is that you can't get this without the CONTROL+ components. I know nothing about Top Gear but I wasn't expecting this to be a CONTROL+ set at all. I was expecting yet another large set, but instead we're getting one that's similar in size to 42093 and similar in function to 76112. That's the biggest headscratcher of this for me.
Everything is going licensed. I can get a decent RC car for half the price. This doesn't even look good.
The bigger a company gets, the more it thinks it sells to stupid customers, another set, and it's a lot of the short past time, which offends many of us both for its design and its price,BRING BACK at least one classic pirate set or one classic space or one classic castle every year !!!!!
It's a nice design, although I'm not sure what it really has to do with Top Gear. And £125 for an RC car...
Why so hate and vitriol?!
Judging by the release date 26 Dec, probably they believe everybody will buy this and they want this wonderful set not to eat the pre-Christmas sales.
I would refuse this even as a gift.
I would rather pay 125 euros for a wooden car with a wooden XL motor controlled by a wooden App on a wooden smartphone. The place for this set is near the wooden figure, on the stove. Even the price is similar.
Totally out of touch since you can buy RC fast cars or helicopters for 30-50 euros if one can believe they were targeting kids with this.
"who are into authentic play and intrigued about how things work"
I'm pretty sure the old fashioned Technic supercars taught a lot more about how things (steering, pistons, crankshafts, differentials, shock absorbers, gear selectors, linkages, steering geometries, etc) work than three opaque grey boxes (hub and two motors) could ever do.
Lieberr R9800 - 9.7p/part
This thing - 26.9p/part
Wow.... Just wow....
Cool to see a colaboration with Top Gear, I hope we will see more sets as a result of this. Maybe a "UCS" Audio Quattro?
3 complaints:
Ew that price!
No remote controller
No Stig (Blomqvist) figure
It's quite ugly. Just saying.
It's kinda small. For $129.99, I would expect something a bit bigger.
@denn said: "how fast will it go?"
Probably as fast as a 42093 Corvette powered by a PF XL motor. OK for indoors but nothing special.
The steering rake will be poor as usual, so a 3-point turn will have many more points and a Top Gear J-turn will be impossible.
@TomKazutatra said: "For what, remote controlled car without remote?"
I should expect a car with 1 drive motor and 1 steering motor to use the 2-port train hub 88009, which would have saved £20 on the hub price, allowing price-inclusion and compatibility with the train remote handset 88010. I'm OK with the train hub and handset but TLG should make the CONTROL+ app allow all types of hub to use a train handset (or 2 or 3) as sensors, so that a 4-port Technic hub can be controlled by 2 handsets. I'd rather remove the need for any soon-to-be obsolete phone app and the expensive phone. Even the devices the app runs on have an 18-month life; a phone is better as a remote but a pad is better if the instructions are on the app, like the 75253 Droid Commander (R2D2 BOOST) kit. Build in versatility; build-out obsolescence; that is what "LEGO" and "system" are supposed to mean.
@Zander is right; this set is probably marketed at non-AFOL dads who pay the TV subs to watch the previous Top Gear presenters on "Grand Tour" and have less sense of value-for-money about LEGO products.
@gloslegofan the CONTROL+ motors have position encoders. The L-motor works well enough as a steering servo in 42099 but the XL-motor is jumpy in that role (I swapped the motors between ports as I tested the parts before building 42099). If you like CONTROL+ then I would recommend more L-motors, keeping the XL ones for power drives.
@SirZed I'm with you on the simplified engineering. Every generation packages up its technologies but that can mean reduced learning of those lessons by the next generation. Sadly the closed electrical system is one of those, but you can get 6-way ribbon cable header sockets. Mechanically, building a car around a big box is different from building a car and adding the control devices as instructions used to show with the addition of the 8293 PF pack.
I've tried the trains, CONTROL+ and BOOST and it seems there are very few models that need more than 2 motors and a 2-port train hub, allowing the remote handset to be used. The handset has controls that can turn 90 degrees for steering, so why use a phone? The real reason is that many people have them already; I don't want to be such an addict. As long as products remain compatible with the teenagers' phones i.e. the Samsung equivalent of J3 or J4 rather than needing J6, then that market might work.
Larger models like 42100 could have twice the setup - 4 motors, 2 train hubs and 2 handsets. Each model has either steering and drive or gear-selection and drive. 42100 has steering and drive in the base, with selection and drive above. It is possible to make a gearbox to select 2 or more functions at once; the trade is that one motor per function makes it easier to keep count of positions. Where TLG have an issue with Technic is that 46989 or 42093 is the smallest size of model that can be motorised with a 4-port hub. Any smaller and the Batmobile setup is necessary.
A LiPo battery for the train hub would help me to warm to Powered-Up products a bit more. Having tried the 3 hubs I'm suspending further purchase of them till a LiPo is made available, and I expect to use the 2-port hub more, even in Technic models; wish it had Technic holes!